Campania

I just got back to Rome from my week in Campania.  I had a great time and saw more than I could have imagined.  Pompeii and Herculaneum were some of the most remarkable places I have ever been.  It rained a bit while we were in Pompeii, but that didn't stop us from seeing as much as possible.  I am completely exhausted, but it was totally worth it.  The food, as usual, was unbelievable as well.  I won't waste your time telling you every detail, but rather I will just post a selection of pictures and add captions.

Tiberius' cave in Sperlonga.  Essentially this is a manmade cave used as a dinning room for the Emperor Tiberius.  There were originally statues everywhere, but more spectacular anymore is the view.

View out into the Bay of Naples:

This is a thermapolium in Pompeii.  Essentially these are roadside shops that serve food - including hot food.  This is a picture of the countertop with storage containers built into it.

Wall painting from Pompeii.  These are literally everywhere.

Here is another picture of a thermapolium, but with a nice view of what the storage containers look like.

This is a carbonized wooden partition from a house in Herculaneum.  Wood hardly ever survives and so this is extremely impressive.

View from the atrium of a house out towards the street.

Mt. Vesuvius looms in the background.

Amphitheater at Capua.  The superstructure didn't survive so well, but this was actually the second largest amphitheater in Italy (behind only the Colosseum).

I left out a lot of details, but I'm rather tired and have a ton of work to do.  I couldn't take as many pictures as I wanted to because it rained quite a bit, but oh well.  Hope all is well on your end.

Best,

Adam

No internet

I am leaving tomorrow for the area of Campania in Italy.  This is the area that includes Pompeii, Cumae, and Herculaneum   We will be there for a week and I will not have internet access while on this trip so I will be sure to take a lot of pictures and update you when I return to Rome.

It's been way too long

Well I could make up all sorts of excuses about why it has taken me this long to update my blog,  but I will save you the time and just say that I have been very busy.  Anyway I've been having a great time and since I last posted have been all over the place.  Besides seeing more than you can imagine in Rome, we spent a week in Sicily and then a group of us spent fall break split between Dublin and Amsterdam.  A week and a half from now we go to the Campania  region of Italy (think Pompeii area) and spend a week there.  I can even imagine trying to recount everything we have done and so I think for the most part I will just add pictures and include a brief caption.  I have a thousand stories from this trip, but I think stories are best shared over dinner or a beer so when I see you next we can talk as much or as little about this stuff as you want.

About to walk through an aqueduct

Round temple to Hercules:

Bridge still in use from the 60's BC

View of the Forum Romanum

Temple at Paestum:

Temple in Agrigento

Theatre at Segesta (wonder why they built a theatre here?)

Temple at Segesta

View from Palermo

On tap from the Guinness factory

View from the top room at the Guinness factory

Irish countryside

Possibly the coolest staircase ever.  This is in the Farnese Palace outside Rome

Colosseum

Me at the arena level of the Colosseum

View from the top

Well at least now I have given you a few pictures from the past weeks, and I will try to be more vigilant about keeping this up to date.

Best,

Adam